When I write, I’m torn between two devils sitting on my shoulders. The one on my right orders me to write a novel while the other whispers in favor of a short story. So far, I have resolved my dilemma by authoring seven traditionally published novels and almost fifty short stories. White City Press recently released With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying, a collection of eighteen of my award-winning short mysteries, from cozy to dark, centering around family and friends, their sins and their sometimes redemption.
In choosing whether to write long or short, the question of which devil I follow comes down to several things. First, am I responding to an open call for a short story? If so, that immediately dictates the length and tone of the piece. For example, the title story for With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying, “So Beautiful or So What,” was written for Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon. Because the song I chose, “So Beautiful or So What,” is not light and airy, it prompted me to create a darker piece that incorporated undercover cops, seedy characters, a tent city setting, and the impact of criminal sin and redemption.
Combining memories of Atlanta’s red-light district and the history of the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama, resulted in Agatha and Anthony finalist, “The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place, a tale told through the eyes of a child. Originally published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, the story allowed me to darkly juxtapose the innocence with which a child views the going-ons in a brothel against activities that occur that the adults know to be evil.
Sometimes though, sinning results in my writing about murder in a way that is anything but somber. The Killer Wore Cranberry: a Fourth Meal of Mayhem required that the story involve Thanksgiving food and be funny. My rendition, “Thanksgiving in Moderation,” begins with the humorous line, “Thanksgiving always has been a good time for weddings – especially second and third or in this case, the fifth time around.” Once that sentence came into my mind, I was off and running with cozy ways to kill the groom-to-be during a family Thanksgiving dinner.
For me, unless the call restricts my writing, the first sentence that comes into my head from the characters’ voices dictates the direction my piece will take. From there, the complexity of how the work unfolds guides my choice of settings, details of the characters, tone or voice of the story, and which devil on my shoulder to pick. The fun thing, as an author, is the variety of choices I have to produce a work that engages readers and satisfies the devils on my shoulders.
With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying
Genre: Short Story Mystery Anthology
Release: February 2025
Format: Print, Digital
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | White City Press
With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying, is a collection of eighteen award-winning short mysteries, from cozy to dark, centering around family and friends, their sins and their sometimes redemption.
About the author
Judge Debra H. Goldstein is the author of With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying, a collection of her short stories, as well as Kensington’s Sarah Blair mystery series, and two standalone novels: IPPY award winning Maze in Blue and Should Have Played Poker: a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery. Her works have received IPPY, Silver Falchion, AWC, and BWR awards, and been named Agatha, Anthony, and Derringer finalists. Debra serves on the national board of Sisters in Crime and previously was on the Mystery Writers of America board and was president of the Guppy and SEMWA chapters. Find out more about Debra at DebraHGoldstein.com.